interiors THE NEW E LEGAN CE A SOUTHPARK HOME PROVES TO BE A HIDDEN ARCHITECTURAL JEWEL. By Blake Miller PhotograPhy By Dustin Peck 72 SOUTHPARK

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1 interiors THE NEW E LEGAN CE A SOUTHPARK HOME PROVES TO BE A HIDDEN ARCHITECTURAL JEWEL. By Blake Miller PhotograPhy By Dustin Peck 72 SOUTHPARK

2 Ellen Rankin s family home in Charlotte s Deering Oaks neighborhood was built in the 1960s. southparkmagazine.com 73

3 The home had been in Ellen Rankin s family since the late 1960s. Built by her great aunt with architect Sherman Perdue, the Georgian-style home with French influences in the Deering Oaks neighorhood was where Rankin and her siblings had grown up visiting on holidays, summer breaks, and long weekends. I have a ton of memories from this house, says Rankin. So when her grandparents put the four-bedroom home on the market in 2008, Rankin had a hard time imagining the house not in her family. But as a trader on Wall Street, Rankin wasn t ready to commit to leaving the New York life and heading home to Charlotte. But when the real estate bubble burst, the home sat on the market for a few years until a buyer finally put an offer in. Finally, my grandparents had an offer and I had this feeling that I was going to come home and I said I m going to buy it, explains Rankin of the change of heart. I just didn t want them to let it go outside the family. The home, which hadn t been renovated since 1977, was modernized to create a space ideal for entertaining. 74 SOUTHPARK

4 I have a ton of memories from this house. ELLEN RANKIN ON HER GRANDPARENTS HOME, WHICH SHE PURCHASED AND MODERNIZED. southparkmagazine.com 75

5 The home, though structurally in great shape, hadn t been renovated since Rankin s grandparents moved in in 1977 and needed serious updating. Rankin enlisted the help of architect Ruard Veltman and interior designer Catherine Walters of Circa Interiors to help modernize the floor plan and finishes to create a space that made the living areas more functional and better suited for entertaining. Veltman first addressed the kitchen and adjacent den, the former of which was a dead-end space. I knew I wanted a back staircase to help with the flow of the home, says Rankin, who also requested a more open kitchen, office space, mudroom, and outdoor living area. Ellen had a very realistic request, but the question was, how do you do this in such a formal house, explains Veltman. Luckily, kitchens in these older homes are rarely of architectural significance so it s easier to strip it down and start all new. The addition of the back staircase and covered porch off the kitchen, though, proved to be a challenge. With an older home, you want to be respectful of the original architecture, says Veltman. The key here is not to cause a ripple effect with the existing architecture. We wanted it to remain within the footprint. Using the existing kitchen and breakfast spaces, Veltman added a back staircase, mud room, side entryway, powder room, and office space without interrupting the home s original architecture. Though new, the covered porch off the kitchen was designed in such a way that it looks like it was part of the original home. It never felt like an afterthought or an addition and it feels like it was always part of the house, says Veltman. The idea is that when you walk in you can see that it has been updated but it still exists in the original space. 76 SOUTHPARK

6 The home s owner asked the architect to create functional spaces like a mudroom and an office area. southparkmagazine.com 77

7 Overwhelmed with the task of furnishing her new home, Rankin, who now works in wealth management, looked to Walters for design help. Using a fresh, neutral color palette to allow the architecture to take center stage, Walters incorporated some of Rankin s existing pieces with newer items while notable details such as the hand-painted murals in the foyer and hand-painted floors in the billiards room remained untouched. I wanted to use a lot of the existing qualities of the home the trim work, the mural in the foyer and I wanted to update it but not make it look so feminine, explains Walters. I think doing less is more in the way of decorations especially with this home. Per Rankin s request, Veltman incorporated the original kitchen s pantry doors, also hand painted, into custom-made doors in the mud room. While the 6,000-square-foot home is still not fully furnished I like to tackle each room one at a time so I can process it all, laughs Rankin the spaces that were most important to her are updated and complete while the most significant design aspect of the home, its architecture, remained intact. I ve been able to host various events here for work or with family. It s exactly as I imagined the home would be when it was done. 910 Reverdy Lane 241 Wonderwood Drive 3402 Gray Moss Road $1,385,000 Marlyn Jamison allentate.com/marlynjamison Under ContraCt Cotswold $995,000 Linwood Bolles $814,900 Kelly Ross allentate.com/kellyross 2522 Roswell Ave 2728 Flintgrove Road Sprucewood Road $800,000 Lauren Campbell allentate.com/laurencampbell $799,000 Sharon Gold allentate.com/sharongold Under ContraCt Lake Wylie $539,000 Linwood Bolles allen tate southpark 78 SOUTHPARK